Rewind - Year In Review

Before The Beat takes (in our opinion) a well-deserved holiday break — a one-week hiatus for our Dec. 29 editions — we hit the Rewind button for a look back at arts and entertainment happenings during 2011. Enjoy, and early best wishes to all of you for 2012 from The Beat.

(This is a print-only hiatus. Make sure to check The Beat page at www.ThisWeekNews.com and “Like” us on Facebook at www. Facebook.com/TWTheBeat for stuff — including more “Rewind” and a feature on ProMusica Chamber Orchestra’s New Year’s Eve concert — next week.)

Best Concert

The Beat admits to making this selection in the past based on dubious criteria, including “show by our favorite band we saw that year” regardless of its real “best”-ness. We also cop to allowing the selection to be made by family members or other Critic Cronies.

This year we appear to do both, but in fact, we do neither. Let us explain.

The Beat’s most recent musical love affair is with South Carolina rockers Needtobreathe. They happened to score the opening slot on Taylor Swift’s 2011 tour. (Previewing our Quotes of the Year: NTB guitarist Bo Rinehart told The Beat, “The way we heard it is she’s a big fan of the band. We were playing a show and we got a phone call. We were like ‘All … right. Is this a joke?’ But they asked us if we wanted to go on tour. At that point, you’re kind of an idiot to say no.”)

We attended this show with our then-13-year-old daughter, who is a massive Taylor fan. All she had to do was endure 40 minutes or so of her Pops singing every word to every Needtobreathe tune.

For her part, Swift’s show was so professional and high quality that we were moved by the musical and visual elements, if not by the lyrics and stories. But Swift knows a pop song. We wrote at the time that “If she was Kevin Cronin, we said, 44-year-old dudes would be singing along with I Can’t Fight This Feeling.”

So we’re giving the coveted Show of the Year Award to Needtobreathe with headliner Taylor Swift for all the above reasons — plus providing a nearly perfect intergenerational evening for The Beat family.

Honorable Mention

The Beat has generally restricted these awards to touring shows rather than locally produced performances, if only to simplify the decision-making process.

Seriously, if we’d have had to look at, for example during the past year, 7 Deadly Sins (BalletMet Columbus and Shadowbox Live), Columbus Jazz Orchestra’s “Night at the Apollo,” CATCO’s Evil Dead The Musical, Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s recent Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 and “Musicians in Harmony” (ProMusica Chamber Orchestra/Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus/Columbus Children’s Choir), there’s no way we could have picked among them.

But we have thus mentioned them, and in (we think) an honorable fashion.

Best Quote

This year’s award is a rare two-parter. Both are from interviews we did on CATCO’s production of Evil Dead the Musical, first from Josef Matulich, who designed the show’s blood effects: “There’s no such thing as an expert. It’s more mad inventor status.”

Couple this with what artistic director Steven Anderson told us during a separate interview — “He is passionate about his blood effects.” — and there’s your winner.

More Quotes

Thanks to everyone who spent time talking to The Beat this year. Here’s a short list of some of the cool things that were said.

• “I love the idea of art for art’s sake, but art doesn’t pay the rent.” Anberlin guitarist Christian McAlhaney

• “One of the aspects of this time period is the women wear corsets. Susanna is a little bit of a flirt, and there are two times in the production where I bow in such a way that presents certain … assets … to a gentleman.” soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird from Opera Columbus’ Figaro

• “There are days when I still feel like that kid, which I think is a good thing. But, and the younger me would punch myself in the face for saying it, it’s good to be a grown-up.” Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carraba

• “Closer than I would like. But since I don’t get to watch much, ignorance is bliss!” Columbus Symphony Orchestra associate conductor Peter Stafford Wilson on the proximity of tumblers and aerialists to the podium in Cirque de la Symphonie

• “Led Zeppelin was doing male posturing dressed as women. There’s a certain alchemy of male and female energy that works for us. It really churns things up, to have that gender, that sexual dynamic.” Steph Paynes of Lez Zeppelin

• “I was playing a festival in Chicago. It was pouring down rain so bad the band on before me had to leave. So I just said ‘Lord, please give me a break.’ And the clouds cleared up, so we did our thing. When we finished, we walked off the stage, and the rain started up again. I asked for it and I got it. But you have to be sincere.” bluesman Guitar Shorty

• “It was time for me to come back and plant some tomatoes I’ll never get to eat, cut the grass and trim the hedges so they don’t look like Sideshow Bob.” Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac on life at home

• “(My mother) told me that when I was teething, she would salve a little bit of Irish whiskey on my gums. That explains a (deleted) lot.” Keith Roberts, frontman and founder of The Young Dubliners

• “If there was a pick-up game of shirts and skins, I’d want to be shirts.” Mamma Mia’s Happy Mahaney on getting back into the gym

News department

• Anniversaries: Columbus Arts Festival marked its 50th anniversary; Columbus Symphony Chorus turned 50; Columbus Children’s Choir closed its 15th season.

• Artistic leadership: BalletMet Columbus artistic director Gerard Charles is celebrating 10 years at his post and 25 years since he first joined BalletMet as a dancer; Columbus Jazz Orchestra marks 10 years with Byron Stripling at the musical helm.

• The Columbus Symphony Orchestra and its musicians reached a deal on a new four-year contract in early 2011.

• Shadowbox Live moved to its new digs in the Brewery District in August, a move that took the company back downtown after more than a decade at Easton Town Center. This year’s annual Holiday Hoopla show is Shadowbox’s 20th.

• The announcement was made that this was the last year for the Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s Picnic With the Pops series at Chemical Abstracts Service. The series will move downtown to at the Columbus Commons’ Pavilion beginning in 2012.

• CAPA entered into an operational agreement with Opera Columbus. The agreement was made as director Press Southworth retired. Southworth was seeking some long-term stability and believed the CAPA arrangement was the best solution.

• The Columbus Maennerchor closed its doors after years of uncertainty surrounding its future.

Among the changes necessitated was local singer-songwriter series Zeppelin Productions needing a new home and finding one at the Grand Valley Dale Ballroom.

• Opera Project Columbus made its debut performance this fall, featuring a cast of local singers and former CSO maestro Alessandro Siciliani on the podium for a concert-style performance of Puccini’s Suor Angelica. The company has another production planned for January.